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June 12, 2010

G64: Red Sox 10, Phillies 2

Daniel Nava hit a grand slam into the Red Sox bullpen on the first pitch in his first major league plate appearance!Nava is the fourth player in history to hit a grand slam in the first at-bat of his major league career. The only other player to do it on the first pitch is Kevin Kouzmanoff of the Padres, who went deep on September 2, 2006.

Rip Repulski is the only other Red Sox player to hit a grand slam in his first plate appearance with the team (May 10, 1960 against the White Sox).

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Matsuzaka was placed on the disabled list shortly before the game with a right forearm strain. Atchison gets the start -- and left-handed reliever Dustin Richardson is on his way from Pawtucket.

The Red Sox are expected to call up Daniel Nava, a 27-year-old switch-hitting outfielder, for today's game. [And they do.] Josh Reddick was optioned to Pawtucket last night.

Nava is batting .294/.364/.492 for Pawtucket this season. Mike Andrews of Sox Prospects calls Nava "one of the best offensive players in the system over the last three seasons, regularly surpassing expectations at every turn". He has been a few years older than his competition at each level, though. Andrews has a good Q&A with Nava here.

Baseball Reference lists June 12, 2001 as the day Gary Sheffield of the Dodgers became the first player in MLB history to hit a solo home run in a 1-0 game three times in a single season, but it should be included on May 12: April 2 (Opening Day) vs Milwaukee, May 7 vs Florida, May 12 (bottom of the 9th) vs Atlanta.

214 comments:

Word is Nava will make his major league debut today, playing LF and batting 9th.

(He is not the first Nava to play major league baseball, though. Sandy Nava played 1882-86. But that guy was born Irwin Sandy, went by Vincent P. Nava and was nicknamed Sandy. So is he a true Nava? ... Sandy Nava was not a good hitter. He had a -13 OPS+ one season, slugging .095 in 34 games.)

The last couple of days in Charlotte, I've left tickets for friends. The procedure is to go down to the clubhouse and sign the sheet. You include the name of your guest, the number of tickets needed and your name. Being the investigative journalist that I am, I noticed that one of our players had left a ticket for a young woman, a famous young woman both days here in the Carolinas. The player - Daniel Nava. The woman - Erin Andrews of ESPN ...

Nava laughed when he was asked if he knew her. "I wish I did." He explained that it is a long standing tradition of his, dating back a couple of seasons. He got the idea from a certain Dallas Cowboys quarterback. "Tony Romo used to put Jessica Simpsons' name down, even though he didn't know her at the time. Word got out and for a while, Romo and Simpson were an item." Is Nava hoping for lightning to strike twice. "I'm not counting on it, but it'd be great."

I asked what it would mean to him if Hyder and Hoard were able to spread the word and make something happen. "I'd owe you guys, big time, I guess." While he's not holding his breath that anything will happen, you just never know.

Whats funny about Scutaro , I watched a move on NESN about minor leaguers must have been made in the late 90's , but Scutaro was a big part of it , and when they reffered to him or when they used game footage ..They always caled him Scu-TAR-o....

i turn on fox for 5 fucking seconds and hear mccarver start in: "you know that sinatra song, ridin' high in april, shot down in may ... well ortiz is the opposite blah blah blah... home runs ... blah blah"

Fox is reporting that he is the second player to hit a grand slam in his first Red Sox appearance, stating that the other is Rip Pepulski. I looked into that. Actually, it's Rip Repulski and it was not his first ML at bat. He entered the league in 1953.

I can't imagine there is anyone else who hit a grand slam on their first pitch in the majors!

I get up from a nap just in time to see that Nava was up with the bases loaded for a second time. I assume no one has ever hit two Grand Slams in their first two ABs. Then I realized I could turn the game on my regular TV. How cool!

I knew England and the US were tied at 1. But I was able to nap -- it's a rare summer day in San Francisco, hot and sunny -- without hearing a bunch of screams from the Bar, so I assumed England had gone well ahead. But we hung in there for tie; that's cool.

Yeah, Fox morons. Comparing the most hyped prospect in recent history having a 7 IP, 14 K start to a relative unknown guy coming from nowhere and hitting a GS in his first at bat. That's a bad comparison on so many levels...

JJ Putz has been targeted as a possible trade target for the Red Sox. He just pitched a scoreless inning to bring his WHIP down to .92 and ERA to 2.49. So he he'd be a great addition, but wouldn't come cheap! Has a 1 year $3m deal.